This forum is priceless, seriously. The good natured badinage, the occasional miffed post - it's great! Many forums tend to be populated by stuffed shirts who whine and snivel over the first sign of discord but here the attitudes are pretty cool.

With chemicals - in a world with high cancer rates, increasing behavioral disorders among children, etc, etc, etc, it would seem logical for people to seek pragmatic alternatives to chemical treatments, many of which have unknown long term effects (some have had negative effects). Generally speaking the funding for honeybee research is often poor, actually diminishing in many areas. So - in my opinion - having the intelligent hobbyist sector experiment with management/breeding techniques seems both sound and SANE. It's in the commercial beekeeping area where most of the trouble seems to originate.